Someone To Lean On
by muffinsloveme
Summary: Ch.3 now up!...Cameron gets a phone call from someone she least expected and it turns her world upside down. She needs someone to lean on. Will that person be House?
1. The Phone Call

**Disclaimer:** Don't own anything but the DVD's.

**Setting:** It's a normal day at PPTH and House and his "ducklings" are working on a new case. Nothing out of the ordinary happens until Cameron gets a phone call...

**Author's Note:** This story is ulitmately about House and Cameron's relationship with a few other things thrown in. Since we don't really know about Cameron's relationship with her mother, I'm making something up. The first couple of chapters may be a little boring but it will get better and I'll throw in a little House n' Cameron lovin'. But I want to make it as realistic as a HouseCam story can be so it may take a while. Hope you all enjoy and please comment. This is my second ever fanfic and I plan on making more if you all enjoy. Here we go!

* * *

"Maybe it's lupus."

"It's not lupus!" a disgruntled House replied to Chase's suggestion. "Anyone else have any other bright ideas?"

Silence fell over the room as Cameron, Foreman, and Chase exchanged nervous glances at one another avoiding the burning gaze of their superior. Finally House broke the silence with a sigh and turned around to write on the white board.

"Well, now that I see I've hired idiots, I might as well-" House was interrupted by a high pitched ringing. Everyone but House turned to see where the sound was coming from. Cameron sheepishly reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small cell phone. Instead of turning it off, she starred at it.

"The ringing sound you hear coming from Cameron's phone indicates that someone is calling her. The question is why do I still hear that annoying ringing sound? It hurts my ears." House said, his attention still focused on the whiteboard. House's voice snapped Cameron back to attention and she slowly flipped the phone open and raised it her ears. Chase and Foreman starred intently at Cameron as she slowly and softly spoke into the phone.

"Mom...?"

Cameron found herself on the stairs leaning her head against the cold brick wall, replaying everything that had been said in the conversation she had just a few moments ago. She wished she knew how to compose herself and push it out of her mind but she couldn't. It all happend so fast and without any warning at all. Cameron never expected her mother to call and deliver such news. She was surprised at how much the phone call upset her and she kept hearing her mother's voice.

_Alison? Is that you? Oh, it's so good to hear your voice. I've missed you so much, darling. _

Ha! What a joke! She could have kept in touch if she really wanted to.

_How have you been all these years? You got yourself a man yet? hehe._

How could she even ask that? How could she laugh like that? Is she heartless?

_Sweetie, your dear old mother needs to ask you a favor. You can help your mother can't you? Yes, of course you can. Well..._

Cameron pressed her hand over her ears and closed her eyes hoping that it would shut out her mother's voice. But she could still hear her...

She looked a sight sitting there with her hands over her ears rocking back and forth, oblivious to the world around her. It scared him. He didn't like seeing her like that. He had come looking for her and was suprised to see her on the stairs, hunched up in what looked like an uncomfortable position. He had watched her walk out the glass doors and head down towards the stairs, cell phone pressed tightly against her ear. After he come up with something for Chase and Foreman to do, he retraced Cameron's steps to the stairs, planning on being evasive and pretending he didn't care what the phone call was about. But as he stood there looking at her, he knew better than to go to her. He didn't think he could calmly demand that she pull herself together and report to the lab to get the results of the biopsy that Chase and Foreman were performing when she was in such a state. He didn't think he would be able to pull off the smart remarks and cold unrelentless gestures. He couldn't do that to her now. Sure, he wanted to mess with her head but he didn't want to break her down. She would start crying and he absolutely could not deal with that. He could not and would not deal with her now.

As quietly as he entered the stairs he left and walked back to his office. He grabbed his iPod and blasted the music loud enough to damage his ears but he didn't care. He had to occupy himself with something long enough to stop thinking about her at the bottom of the stairs, all alone, having a mental breakdown and the fact that he wasn't going to comfort her like he wanted to. If he didn't stop thinking about her, he was going to have a mental breakdown himself.


	2. With a little help from Wilson

**Author's Note:** Sorry this chapter is so incredibly short! I had planned to write more but I'll have to put that off until later. They all seem to be just a little OOC to me in this chapter. I'm sorry about that but hopefully I can make chapter 3 better.

* * *

He was leaving his office to get some vicodin. He needed some to drown the pain that he swore to himself was just his leg bothering him again. He never expected to see Wilson with his arms around a sniffling Cameron, walking her down the hall. For a moment he froze watching the two. Cameron seemed to be exposing all of her problems while Wilson listened intently with a concerned expression plastered to his face. Suddenly, she turned to Wilson and leaned into his embrace. He hugged her and House couldn't help but notice Wilson's hand rubbing up and down her back. A strong feeling washed over House. Was it jealousy? He couldn't just stand there and watch them. Taking a step towards them, he suddenly made himself known.

"PDA! PDA! Cameron, I never knew you and Wilson were-" he cut himself off to make a hand motion and adopt a shocked expression on his face. "Finally put the moves on her eh?" House winked at Wilson.

"House" Wilson said firmly. House watched Cameron quickly wipe away the tears in her eyes with a swift hand motion as if she didn't want him to know she had been crying. He could understand that. He wasn't the kind of person you wanted to become emotional around. He wouldn't pity you and he would turn it into some kind of hurtful joke. If you had any sense at all you knew better than to cry around House. Apparently, Cameron had a lot of sense.

"I'm going to go. Bye Wilson, House." Cameron said. Before she turned to walk away she shared a smile with Wilson, a smile that only those two could understand. _Now when had they become so close?_ House thought to himself as he turned to Wilson to make another sarcastic remark.

* * *

The first thought that crossed her mind when she felt a hand on her arm on the stairs was that it was House. Maybe that was because subconsciously, that's who she had wished it was. She quickly looked over at the owner of the hand and was surprised to see Wilson. She had never really been close to Wilson but she really needed someone to lean on. She wished she hadn't told Wilson as much as she did but honestly, it felt good to talk to someone. She just wished she had someone to talk to more often. 


	3. An unknown side of Cameron

**Disclaimer:** I owe nothing!

**Authors Note:** Thank you all for reviewing and please do so for this chapter too. Cameron is very OOC in this chapter but you'll soon see why. I hope you like it and I will eventually tell you what Cameron's mother wanted. And please leave reviews! Thanks.

* * *

It wasn't often that House chose the noisy and crowded local bar over his own quiet domain to drown his sorrows in alcohol, but tonight he just couldn't go home. He didn't think he'd be able to stand another lonely night in his house. The funny thing was that he drank to make the feeling of emptiness go away but the drunker he got, the more the feeling lingered on him, haunting him like his own personal ghost. Tonight he thought that the ghost wouldn't be as threatening in a public atmosphere.

He limped into the bar and started to make his way to a dimly lit corner when suddenly a familiar figure caught his attention. House advanced toward the person to get a better view and realized it was none other than Alison Cameron. House had fleeting thoughts of turning around and going home but curiosity got the better of him. He walked up the bar and sat down at a stool right beside her. When she didn't seem to notice his presence, House took a better look at her.

She was drunk. She had her head down and only looked up to take a long drink of scotch in her glass. Feeling as if someone were watching her, Cameron looked over to her right and was surprised to see House studying her as if she were a patient of his.

House watched her turn to him and smile a lopsided smile and manage out a slurred, "Hey." House only nodded and watched her smile slowly turn into a frown as she looked away from his gaze, almost as if she was sorry she smiled at him. House realized he had never seen her drunk before. He wondered if she did this often. She didn't seem like a person who got drunk often but House realized that you never really know a person. He thought he knew Stacy, but apparently...

Silently he cursed himself. Here lately every time he looked at Cameron, thoughts of Stacy came rushing back to him. Everytime he thought about Cameron and secretly wondered what it would be like to hold her in his arms, to kiss her, to make love to her, he had to stop himself. He couldn't have another relationship like he had with Stacy. Too good to be true. Everything he had turned out that way. And he knew Alison Cameron would turn out that way too. Even if he did manage to get her and make her his one and only, he knew that it would come crashing down around his feet. Alison Cameron was just too good to be true.

"How many of those have you had?" House asked, interrupting his own thoughts. Cameron looked over at House. House was surprised when she snickered and burst out into laughter.

"I don't know!" she drunkenly laughed. House was taken aback by her sudden outburst into laughter. He knew, of course, that people in intoxicated states did some outrageous things but he didn't expect Cameron to fit into that category. House had always made the assumption that Cameron was a quiet drunk. He smiled to himself when he realized his assumption had been wrong.

As drunk as Cameron was, House's sly smile didn't go unnoticed. Turning to him she asked, "What? What's so funny?"

House smiled even more at her slurred speech. "It's just a day I never thought I'd see. Perfect Cameron drunk as a dog."

Cameron sat silently for a moment registering what he had just said. Suddenly she threw her hand up and pointed a finger at House. "Well, you should know I don't do this often. But..." Her voice trailed off and she looked down at her glass.

"But what?" House asked prying into her deepest thoughts. He realized he had the perfect opportunity to find out why she was here. He figured it had to do with that phone call she received earlier and her confrontation with Wilson. When she didn't answer, House asked again.

"But what?"

Cameron looked up at him and House noticed something in her eyes that hadn't been there before: pain. Cameron opened her mouth and then closed it suddenly. House assumed that she was trying to figure out what to say.

"I think I'll have another!" She said waving the bartender over. _So she decided to change the subject?_ House thought. _Well, I'll get it out of her sometime. _He promised himself.

"You've had too many." House said sternly.

"No, I haven't!" Cameron protested loudly, then started to snicker again. "Maybe I have." The bartender approached and asked Cameron if she needed a refill. She opened her mouth to answer but House cut her off.

"No. She's had enough. How much?" House asked and paid her tab. Cameron didn't protest until House made the next offer.

"Come on. I'll take you home. You're too drunk too drive." House said, getting up from his bar stool and grabbing his cane.

"But I don't wanna go home!" Cameron whined as she stood up and almost lost her balance.

"I don't care!" House replied firmly.

"But-"

"NO!"

"Okay, okay." Cameron slurred. "Fine."

House watched her take a step forward and almost fall flat on her face. He walked over to her and put his arm around her to steady her as she walked.

"This ain't easy, ya know. I'm a cripple." House said as she leaned all her weight on him making it hard to use his cane. As if it was the best joke she had ever heard, Cameron burst out laughing.

"It wasn't that funny." House said walking her out to his car.

* * *

All the way to her house, Cameron had been a complete chatterbox. House was getting a headache listening to her incessant talking. Even though he had repeatedly replied with, "I don't care!" it still didn't stop her. She just kept talking about everything she could think of, often repeating herself over and over. She must have talked herself to sleep because when it became silent, House looked over at her and noticed she had fallen asleep. When he pulled up at her house, he realized her door was probably locked and he wouldn't be able to get her awake to get the keys.

_Crap! _he thought as he started to panic. What if he couldn't get her door open? He glanced over at her and realized she had her purse on her shoulder. He reached over and dug through her purse until he felt keys in his hand. He snatched them up and walked over to her door. Finding the one that opended her house door, he unlocked it and stepped inside. He looked around and noticed that it was unusually messy. He opened her bedroom door and went back outside to his car. He opened the passenger side door and picked her up and limped his way through her house and into her bedroom where he layed her gently on the bed. Her head fell into a awkward postion and a lock of auburn hair fell over her eyes. House had a burning urge to reach out and brush the lock of hair back, but he knew better. Still, he was suprised how beautiful she looked even passed out and drunk.

He was about to turn and walk back out to his car when he noticed a small piece of paper sticking out of her jeans pocket. Curiosity got the best of him and he reached down and pulled the piece of paper out of her pocket and unfolded it. He was confused and puzzled by the simplicity of what was written on it. In Cameron's handwriting, the numbers $5,000 accompanied by a dollar sign were scrawled on the paper. Without thinking he crumpled the paper and put it in his jeans pocket as he walked out of Cameron's house.


End file.
